Persistence and Change of Regional IndustrialActivities – The Impact of Diversification in theGerman Machine Tool Industry

The paper Investigates stability and change of regional economic activities in the longrun.As the unit of analysis we selected the machine tool industry in West Germany forthe years 1953 to 2002. We spot a strong variance in the activities between the differentregions. These differences are relatively stable over time and the regional activities arerather path-dependent. Nevertheless, the paper also identifies changes in the level ofactivities. As the main driving factors for these changes we examine the effect ofregional diversification strategies. We find that those regions pursuing a generaldiversification strategy have a higher likelihood to grow than regions which arespecialising.[...]